The present invention relates to information retrieval systems, information retrieval apparatus, information retrieval methods and storage media by which user-desired information can be searched for and distributed via a wired or wireless communication network such as the Internet. Particularly, the present invention relates to an improved information retrieval system, information retrieval apparatus, information retrieval method and storage medium by which user-desired information can be readily searched for in a prompt manner. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an improved information retrieval system, information retrieval apparatus, information retrieval method and storage medium by which user-desired information can be retrieved or obtained in an efficient manner
The present invention also relates to a storage medium, product ordering method and apparatus and storage medium with a product ordering program recorded therein which are used by a human user to order a desired product via a communication network, and which can suitably search, on an off-line basis, distribution services of musical composition data or other information to locate a particular music piece or other information to be distributed to the user.
Recently, with the rapid development of wired and wireless communication networks typified by the Internet, everyone can obtain any desired information at any desired time by accessing a particular WWW (acronym for World Wide Web) site on a communication network by use of a personal computer, cellular phone or the like. Examples of information obtainable by users from such WWW sites include character data, image data, musical composition data and so on. These communication networks, such as the Internet, are being inundated with an extremely great amount of information, so that a user must search such an extremely great amount of information for any desired information. Among various schemes for searching for desired information is one that conducts a search using, as a searching clue, keywords pertaining to the desired information and displays a listing of candidate WWW sites that are supposed to possess relevant information corresponding to the keywords; for example, this scheme displays Uniform Resource Locators (i.e., Internet addresses commonly known as URLs) as results of the search. In such a scheme, the user is allowed to ultimately hit one or more appropriate WWW sites possessing the user-desired information by sequentially narrowing the candidate WWW sites by use of a plurality of specific keywords or the like.
The user can obtain or retrieve and make use of the thus searched-for information. Namely, the user can access the desired WWW site on a communication network using a personal computer, cellular phone or the like and thereby obtain (i.e., download) the desired or target information to his or her personal computer, cellular phone or the like for payment or on a charge-free basis (i.e., with or without payment due). For instance, when the user wants to listen to a desired music piece, the user can obtain or download a musical composition data file of the desired music piece from a predetermined site having prestored therein the musical composition data file, for payment or on a charge-free basis, by accessing the predetermined site via a communication network.
However, it would usually take a considerable time to search for and obtain user-desired information (e.g., character data representing new product information about particular equipment, such as an electronic musical instrument possessed by the user, or musical composition data capable of being automatically performed by the user-possessed electronic musical instrument), via a wired or wireless communication network such as the Internet, from among an enormous amount of information inundating the communication network. Namely, with the above-mentioned conventional search scheme, the user can not readily hit an exact WWW site containing the desired information unless appropriate keywords are input. But, it has been quite difficult for virtually everyone, particularly a beginner or insufficiently-experienced user, to select appropriate keywords with which to search for the desired information. Furthermore, due to the recent explosive increase in the amount of information on the communication networks, to search for an exact WWW site containing desired or target information is nowadays an even more time-consuming operation even when the user selects and enters appropriate keywords. Besides, even when the WWW site containing desired or target information has been hit quickly, the user has to learn how to properly use the WWW site before actually using the WWW site, which would also take a long time. Further, the connection to the Internet or other communication network must be continued while the search is being made for the WWW site and while the thus searched-for WWW site is being used. Therefore, as the time lengths of the search and use of the WWW site increase, the user has to pay a greater amount of money for the connection to the communication network. Such great connection charges significantly weaken potential users' eagerness or motivation to access WWW sites, so that the number of users' access to the WWW sites would undesirably decrease.
In addition, because the conventional technology does not allow a user to obtain only a selected portion of information prestored in a particular WWW site, the user would have to collectively obtain the whole information (e.g., an entire or complete musical composition data file of a particular music piece) including portions unnecessary for the user. Thus gaining the whole information including unnecessary portions, rather than only the necessary portion of the information, is very wasteful, time-consuming and hence inefficient.
For example, there are being provided today data distribution services in which a multiplicity of sets or files of musical composition data are prestored in a database on the Internet and a desired one of the prestored musical composition data files is distributed via the communication network to a user's personal computer in response to access by the user. Among such data distribution services is the “Mid Radio” (trademark of Yamaha Corporation) where musical composition data files of about 7,000 music pieces are prestored. FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a general setup of an example of the conventionally-known music-piece-data distribution system. As seen in FIG. 23, the music-piece-data distribution system includes an electronic musical instrument 101, a personal computer 102, a communication network X such as the Internet, a billing process server 103, a music-piece-data distribution server 104, and a database of musical composition data 105. Reference numeral 106 represents speakers attached to the personal computer 102, 107 a flexible magnetic disk (floppy disk), and 108 a serial cable. The personal computer 102 is dialup-connected through telephone lines to the communication network x.
The music-piece-data distribution server 104 is, for example, a WWW (Word Wide Web) server, and the database 105 is connected to the music-piece-data distribution server 104. The billing process server 103, which is managed by a credit company, bank or the like, is connected to the communication network X and is equipped with a database storing billing information of individual clients. The music-piece-data distribution server 104 is responsive to a request from the personal computer 102 for distributing a designated musical composition data file to the personal computer 102. Note that before distributing the designated musical composition data file, the music-piece-data distribution server 104 transmits, to the billing process server 103, information indicative of a price, payment terms and conditions, etc. of the designated musical composition data file for billing and payment purposes. The billing process server 103 accesses the personal computer 102 in order to bill the user of the personal computer 102. Payment of the charged amount may be made by a credit card or prepaid card. After completion of the billing operation, the billing process server 103 accesses the music-piece-data distribution server 104 to inform that the necessary billing operation has been completed.
The music-piece-data distribution server 104 retrieves the designated or requested musical composition data file from the database 105 and distributes the thus-retrieved musical composition data file to the personal computer 102. In turn, the personal computer 102 registers the distributed musical composition data file into a predetermined directory of a hard disk. File of the musical composition data is based on the SMF (Standard MIDI File) or other specific format. Typically, each musical composition data file comprises combinations of event data and timing data. Examples of the event data include note-on, note-off, program change events, etc. Each timing data is indicative of time having elapsed from the occurrence time of the immediately preceding event.
Where a tone generator is incorporated in or connected to the personal computer 102, tones can be audibly reproduced through the speakers 106 by performing the musical composition data file. In an alternative, the musical composition data file is copied onto the flexible magnetic disk (floppy disk) 107 so that it can be inserted into the electronic musical instrument 101 for audible reproduction or performance. In another alternative, the musical composition data file is transferred via the serial cable 108 to the electronic musical instrument 101 for performance. Using the downloaded musical composition data file, the electronic musical instrument 101 allows the user to practice a so-called “minus-one performance” with tones of a particular performance part prevented from being reproduced, or practice playing with tones only of a particular performance part reproduced, or practice playing based on key depression instructions of a particular performance part.
However, in order to initiate a search for a desired musical composition data file from among a multiplicity of musical composition data files, it is necessary for the user to type the name of the desired music piece in a text box on a screen, or select and type search conditions about the desired musical composition data file in accordance with search steps shown on the screen, which would require not a little time and effort. Further, a considerable time would be taken before a result of the search is gained. Also, depending on the entered search conditions, the desired musical composition data file can not be properly located, in which case there would arise a need to select the name of the desired music piece file from among a listing of music piece names obtained as a result of the search. Thus, inexperienced users tend to require a longer searching time that leads to increased communication and connection charges, which would make the users reluctant to use the distribution services. Furthermore, there are many types of musical composition data files, such as karaoke data, guitar playing data, electronic piano playing data, etc. Therefore, if a search is conducted without taking the particular type of the desired data file into account, even a musical composition data file matching with a music piece name entered by the user would sometimes fail to properly fit an electronic musical instrument, tone generator or other equipment being used by the user. For this reason, each time a search is to be made for a musical composition data file, it is necessary for the user to specify the type of the musical composition data file so that the searched-for musical composition data file can fit his or her equipment, which would result in even greater loads on the user.